OTT No. 9: Respect The Past, Take Notes...and Prepare the Future

After nearly a month, I’m back with another edition of On The Take. In this week’s edition, I’m going to talk about the coaching issues in the NHL, as well as a few ideas I had to make certain WWE stars less worthless when it comes to their TV character.

Let’s hit up WWE first.

Before you ask, I can't look in my pictures for a suitable one because the site here won't let me. Still not sure why. If I could, I'd find a shot of Santino, because that is what this article focuses on most. But I think my idea lends itself well to the shot above.

Santino Marella. Chuck Palumbo. Little Guido. Three superstars with great potential when signed, two of which have since become a victim of circumstance in the new look WWE where people are fired at a drop of a hat if they take too long to do something big.

I have seen Santino talk a ton more than he has wrestled over this past year, and it seems to work. He’s the most hilarious immigrant character since the face version of Ugandan Kamala in the mid 90s.

But it’s the World Wrestling Entertainment company, not the World Talking Entertainment company.

So, WWE gives him the IC Title, makes him wrestle old stars like Honky Tonk Man and D-Lo Brown (who was hired back, but for what reason, I’m not sure) and now seems to be starting a mini-feud with Goldust.

If anyone was wondering why Goldust doesn’t get a pop, it’s because all the Cena fans weren’t even born yet when the Goldust character debuted, and apparently, their parents forgot to educate them on the former IC Champion’s credentials. Getting back to my idea.

Little Guido, known briefly in WWE as Nunzio, has been a star before. In ECW. Not that crappy one hour version we get on Tuesday’s, no, I mean the real ECW, the brand of action that made Vince re-invent the company to keep up with in the mid to late 90s. Paul Heyman decided instead of cartoon characters, let’s actually have wall to wall action, great wrestling on a, what a shocker, wrestling program.

Years later, with the ECW bond growing, fans tuned in to WWE and saw Steve Austin stun his boss, women wearing barely there outfits, smart ass groups making any sexual innuendo they could while kicking some big time butts in the process…The Attitude Era had arrived.

Guido was one of the better “wrestlers” on the ECW roster at that time, and was rewarded with a unit to help his cause (the FBI) and multiple titles. He was pushed because, simply, Paul Heyman wasn't Vince McMahon.

In WWE, he was used as a jobber, then in a comedy role before being used up and fired. Oh yeah and he became Cruiserweight champion once, when the belt meant something. I didn’t mind too much at the time, because it was expected by the way things were going down.

But it’s been a few years, and nothing has changed when it comes to pushing talented wrestlers regardless of size until THE FANS say they don’t like them anymore. Who saw Kozlov vs. Triple H and enjoyed the big guy Vince was pushing for no apparent reason? Ok, Who was either bored out of the skull or taking a piss break during that match? Wow, there are a lot of you. Moving on.

Chuck Palumbo was back, with an OK gimmick, except for the biker thing…WWE had already done that with Taker which led to Palumbo being pigeonholed and completely ignored. There was no way he could live up to that comparison and soon, he too was out of work again.

What I think could have worked, was to make Beth a face after she pinned Santino. Then, had Guido and Palumbo been used correctly at the time, or there at all, Santino could have joined forces with them, and boom we have a faction that moves things along and uses the past to their advantage: the Full Blooded Italians could have been reborn.

Santino would be able to do his comedy heel role just fine, when surrounded by the heavy in Palumbo and a true wrestler in Guido. Hell, bring Vito back and throw him in the mix too.

The most important part of this formation would be putting Santino through matches that meant something, where he could show off some amateur style and earn a bit of respect. Right now, he’s given the mic often and yet as good as he is on the stick, that’s how bad his career is suffering when it matters-in the ring.

Not that my idea would change the world, but I think it would serve its purpose. Just a thought, Vince.

Let’s meet up here again for part two Saturday night as I talk about the plight of being an NHL coach this year and why I think the power brokers made some big mistakes.

At least one right was wronged…but I’ll go into that further this weekend.

Till then,

This is your Crowd Coach signing off.